#15860·Redis

[BUG] DEBUG RESTART leaves inherited file descriptors above maxclients + 1024 open

Author: QiaoyiZhengCreated Sep 24, 2026Updated Sep 28, 2026

Describe the bug

restartServer() says it closes all file descriptors except stdin, stdout, and stderr before execve(), but its loop only checks descriptors below server.maxclients + 1024. An inherited descriptor above that bound, without FD_CLOEXEC, remains open in the restarted Redis process.

To reproduce

On Linux with a file-descriptor limit above 1500, build Redis and run this Python launcher from the repository root in one terminal:

python
import os
import subprocess

socket_path = "/tmp/redis-restart-fd-repro.sock"
try:
    os.unlink(socket_path)
except FileNotFoundError:
    pass

for target_fd in (900, 1500):
    read_fd, write_fd = os.pipe()
    os.dup2(read_fd, target_fd)
    os.set_inheritable(target_fd, True)
    os.close(read_fd)
    os.close(write_fd)

server = subprocess.Popen(
    ["./src/redis-server", "--port", "0", "--unixsocket", socket_path,
     "--maxclients", "100", "--enable-debug-command", "yes",
     "--save", "", "--appendonly", "no"],
    pass_fds=(900, 1500),
)

def show_fds():
    for fd in (900, 1500):
        try:
            value = os.readlink(f"/proc/{server.pid}/fd/{fd}")
        except FileNotFoundError:
            value = "closed"
        print(f"FD {fd}: {value}")

print(f"Redis PID: {server.pid}")
input("Press Enter once Redis is ready to inspect inherited FDs: ")
show_fds()
input("Run DEBUG RESTART 0 in another terminal, wait for PING, then press Enter: ")
show_fds()

In another terminal, run:

bash
./src/redis-cli -s /tmp/redis-restart-fd-repro.sock PING
./src/redis-cli -s /tmp/redis-restart-fd-repro.sock DEBUG RESTART 0
./src/redis-cli -s /tmp/redis-restart-fd-repro.sock PING

With maxclients=100, the close loop covers [3, 1124). Before restart, both FDs refer to pipes. After restart, FD 900 is closed, while FD 1500 still refers to its original pipe. In our Redis 8.10.1 replay, the PID stayed the same and the server's run_id changed; the in-range pipe's peer write failed with EPIPE, while a write to the out-of-range pipe succeeded.

Expected behavior

Both inherited pipe descriptors should be closed before execve(), as described by the comment in restartServer(). Descriptors opened by the new Redis process after restart are unrelated to this report.

Additional information

The loop in src/server.c is:

c
for (j = 3; j < (int)server.maxclients + 1024; j++) {
    if (fcntl(j,F_GETFD) != -1) close(j);
}

maxclients + 1024 is not an upper bound on descriptor numbers a process can inherit. The same loop is present in the current unstable branch. Could the restart path close all inherited descriptors without assuming this bound?